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LESSON II

1. Read the following selection carefully.

2. With closed eyes, imagine that you see the incident just as it was happening.

3. Tell it in your own words without looking at the book.

THE CONSIDERATE PHYSICIAN

A puor girl, who had just recovered from a fit of sickness, gathered up her scanty earnings, and went to the doctor's office to settle her bill. Just at the door, the lawyer of the place passed into the office before her, on a similar errand.

"Well, doctor," said he, "I believe I am indebted to you, and I should like to know how much."

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"Yes," said the doctor, "I attended upon you about week; now what would you charge me for a week's service? or what do you realize, on an average, for a week's service?"

"O," said the lawyer, "perhaps seventy-five dollars." "Very well, then, as my time and profession are as valuable as yours, your bill is seventy-five dollars."

The poor girl's heart sunk within her, for should her bill be anything like that, how could she ever pay? The lawyer paid his bill and passed out, when the doctor turned to the young woman, and kindly inquired her errand.

"I come," said she, "to know what I owe you, although I do not know that I can ever pay you."

"I attended you about a week," said he.

"Yes, sir!"

"What do you earn a week?"

"Seventy-five cents."

"Is that all?"

"Yes, sir."

"Then your bill is seventy-five cents."

The poor girl paid him thankfully, and went back with a glad heart.

1. Master the meaning of what Wolsey says below.

2. Write it out in your own words, giving Wolsey's thought and feeling just as he might have given it in other words.

Caution: Do not say, "Wolsey says he has been foolish," etc., but put it into the words he might have used, e. g., "I have been foolish; like rash boys that cannot swim I have gone beyond a safe depth," etc.

3. Practice telling it so as not to omit anything important.

Wolsey:

Farewell, a long farewell, to all my greatness!
This is the state of man:-today he puts forth
The tender leaves of hopes, tomorrow blossoms,
And bears his blushing honors thick upon him;
The third day comes a frost, a killing frost;
And (when he thinks, good easy man, full surely
His greatness is a ripening) nips his root,
And then he falls, as I do. I have ventured,
Like little wanton boys that swim on bladders,
This many summers in a sea of glory,

But far beyond my depth: my high-blown pride
At length broke under me; and now has left me,
Weary and old with service, to the mercy

Of a rude stream that must for ever hide me.
Vain pomp, and glory of this world, I hate ye;
I feel my heart new opened: O, how wretched
Is that poor man, that hangs on princes' favors!
There is betwixt that smile we would aspire to,
That sweet aspect of princes, and their ruin,
More pangs and fears than wars or women have;
And when he falls, he falls like Lucifer,
Never to hope again.

--Shakespeare's Henry VIII.

1. Read the following stanzas carefully; look up anything you do not understand.

2. Imagine that you are with Wordsworth, and make yourself see everything he saw.

3. Write out fully the picture you have in your mind. 4. Tell the class about it, using Wordsworth's words when they happen to come into your mind.

THE DAFFODILS

I wandered lonely as a cloud

That floats on high o'er vales and hills:
When all at once I saw a crowd,
A host, of golden daffodils,
Beside the lake, beneath the trees,
Fluttering and dancing in the breeze.

Continuous as the stars that shine
And twinkle on the Milky Way,
They stretched in never ending line
Along the margin of a bay:
Ten thousand saw I at a glance,
Tossing their heads in sprightly dance.

The waves beside them danced; but they
Outdid the sparkling waves in glee;
A poet could not but be gay

In such a jocund company.

I gazed-and gazed-but little thought
What wealth the show to me had brought:

For oft, when on my couch I lie
In vacant or in pensive mood,
They flash upon that inward eye

Which is the bliss of solitude;

And then my heart with pleasure fills,
And dances with the daffodils.

-Wordsworth.

REVIEW QUESTIONS

1. Is it easy to imagine a scene clearly and vividly or do you have to fix your mind on it with effort?

2. Is Wolsey standing, sitting, or lying down when he speaks? Is he young or old?

3. In Wordsworth's poem is it a clear day or cloudy? Is it windy or mild? Any hills in the picture? Any houses? Any people?

4. Which of these scenes can you imagine most easily? Is it because you have seen scenes similar to that? 5. Will a drum give a crisp tone if either of the drumheads is flabby?

6. If the body of a violin is broken, will it make any difference in the tone? If you stretch violin strings across a green pumpkin shell will you get a resonant tone? Can you tell the reason? Would soft wood make a good violin?

EXERCISES

We cannot here attempt to study the physiology of the voice. The student's attention, however, is directed to a few of the essential facts. The human voice is a string instrument rather than a wind instrument. The tones of the

voice are produced in the throat by the vibrating of the vocal chords. They should vibrate freely, like the strings of a violin, over a body of still air. To give the vocal chords free play the body should be held erect and the chords relieved from any strain caused by muscular pressure or unnatural position. To secure a column of quiet air the chest should be expanded and the breath inhaled and exhaled without puffing it through the vocal chords as if the voice were a sort of trumpet. Hoarseness and various other ailments are caused by neglect of these two great vocal requirements.

The Exercises should be practiced faithfully a few minutes every day; and as a result you will attain to a smooth, pure tone, a good volume of sound, and ease in speaking.

1. a. Stand erect, heels together, with the arms extended in front, at the height of the shoulders, palms together.

b. Spread arms, keeping them level with shoulders. c. Return front.

d. Repeat eight times.

2. a. Stand erect with arms down at sides.

b. Raise arms sideways to level of shoulders.

c. Return.

d. Repeat eight times.

3. a. Arms down at sides.

b. Raise arms in front to level of shoulders.

c. Return.

d. Repeat eight times.

4. a. Arms down at sides.

b. Slowly raise arms sideways till they meet over

head, inhaling at the same time.

c. Slowly return arms to sides, while exhaling.
d. Repeat eight times.

LESSON III

The first thing in studying a passage is to get the gist of it, to find the Author's main thought, to grasp his meaning as a whole.

1. Read and re-read the following until you get the

thought completely.

2. Write out the substance of it, the main thought, in twenty-five to thirty words. This is called a Condensative Paraphrase.

3. Condense each paragraph into ten or fifteen words.

THE TRUE KINGS OF THE EARTH

Mighty of heart, mighty of mind-"magnanimous❞—to be this is indeed to be great in life; to become this unceasingly is indeed to "advance in life"-in life itself---not in the trappings of it. Do you remember that old Scythian custom? How, when the head of the house died. he was dressed in his finest dress, and set in his chariot, and carried about to his friends' houses; and each of them placed him at his table's head, and all feasted in his presence.

Suppose it were offered to you in plain words, as it is offered to you in dire facts, that you should gain this Scythian honor, gradually, while you yet thought yourself alive. Suppose the offer were this: You shall die slowly; your blood shall daily grow cold, your flesh petrify, your heart beat at last only as a rusty group of iron valves. Your life shall fade from you, and sink through the earth into the ice of Caina; but, day by day, your body shall be dressed more gaily, and set in higher chariots, and have more orders on its breast-crowns on its head, if you will. Men shall bow before it, stare and shout around it; feast it at their table's heads all the night long; your soul shall stay enough with it to know what they do, and to feel the weight of the golden dress on its shoulders, and the furrow of the crown edge on the skull-no more. Would you take the offer verbally made by the death-angel? Would the meanest among us take it, think you?

Yet practically and verily we grasp at it, every one of us, in a measure; many of us grasp at it in its fulness of horror. Every man accepts it, who desires to advance in life without knowing what life is; who means only that he is to get more horses, and more servants, and more fur

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